Thursday, October 28, 2010

Today my creative space is all about kids stuff. I've been wanting to make some tin can phones for ages as my sister and I had so much fun playing with them when we were little. Last night I decorated two cans with kozo tape and attached the string- we tried them out today and they really do work! I love good old fashioned kids toys that have been around for ever :)

And the other day for the 5 year old class I teach in we made bubble blowers out of pipe cleaners -the kids had heaps of fun blowing and chasing bubbles. The pipe cleaners get pretty soggy but for a cheap and quick bubble blower that kids can make themselves they were great.

Ttoday I tried out making my own bubble mixture- I used this recipe and it worked well.

half a cup of water

half a cup of dishwashing liquid

6 drops of glycerin (I got this from the chemist- it was called Glycerol but apparently it's the same thing)

Stoked with this photo from the other day snapped mid bubble blow!

And I bought some Shrinky Dinks the other day for a rainy afternoon activity after seeing it on Cotton Kiwi's blog. Thanks Sarah for sharing these- I'd never heard of them before! It is this cool plastic paper stuff that you draw pictures on and then you cut them out and put them in the oven and they shrink and harden so you can use them for bag tags, jewellery and heaps more. Amelie loved seeing them shrink and shrivel up in the oven and then fold out flat. I just bought the refill pack instead of the pack with the drawings and you get quite a few sheets so it should last for a few more rainy afternoons yet.

PS: I am doing some seed growing with my 5 year old class next week- sowing seeds in yoghurt containers. Can anyone tell me what would be a good seed/plant to sow that comes up nice and quick? I was thinking of sunflowers or beans? or maybe cress or even grass would be quicker? Thanks!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

I've been wanting to make Amelie a noticeboard for her room for ages but I just couldn't find the right fabric to go with her blue walls..until I came across this lovely fabric called Cotton Bird Trail from Kate Fitzpatrick. I wanted to make a noticeboard that also held all her bits and pieces that end up all over the house so I came up with the idea of adding a plastic pocket to the bottom of the noticeboard for all her hair clips, bobbles, headbands etc. (I should add that they are still all over the house but at least they have a home now at the end of the day!) It actually didn't take much time at all- maybe an hour at the most so I thought I'd share it with you.

You'll need

* a piece of pinex cut to the size you want - I got it from ITM building supplies

* a piece of fabric big enough to cover the noticeboard

* a gun stapler

* some clear plastic (I get mine from Payless Plastics- you buy it off the roll- about $5 for half a metre)

* some bias binding

1. To work out how much fabric to cut, measure the width and length of your piece of pinex, then add about 5-10 cm to those measurements (depending on how thick your piece of pinex is- you want to cover the pinex including the sides with lots of room on the back to staple the fabric down easily) and cut out your fabric to those measurements.

2. Measure a piece of clear plastic the width of the piece of fabric and however much high you want it to be (mine was about 18 cm which includes some of the plastic going around the bottom of the noticeboard and stapled on the back- my pocket is about 15cm high finished)

3. Cut out your plastic and cut a piece of bias binding the width of the plastic

4. Sew the binding to the top of the plastic

5. Staple gun your fabric onto the piece of pinex

6. Place your plastic pocket on top of the fabric, fold it around the sides of the noticeboard and staple gun it to the back, sides and bottom of the noticeboard.

A tip- when you staple the plastic let it have a bit of give instead of stapling it really tightly and flat to the noticeboard otherwise little fingers will find it tricky to get things out of the pocket! When I made mine I actually sewed three pockets into the plastic but I wouldn't do that again as it is quite tricky to get the things out of the pockets- it would be a lot easier if it was just one big pocket like in the tutorial.

7. I just stapled gunned a piece of string to the back to hang it but it isn't working very well so I'm going to get some little screws or something to attach the string to so the staples don't keep popping out when Amelie pulls on the noticeboard!

So there you have it- any questions just let me know! For more creative spaces head over to Kootoyoo.

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Hello and welcome to 'mousehouse'-a place I share crafty projects, home design and organising ideas, fun things for kids to make and do, classroom and teaching ideas and lots more...

Megan

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